TitanFall Hands-on Impressions – Falling for Respawn

There was never a time where I doubted that Titanfall would be good. Saying I had doubts about it would be false, because I had every faith in Respawn Entertainment’s first title being every bit as fun to play as their Call of Duty contributions with Activision. Thankfully they haven’t let us down, and after getting the chance to play a match at the Eurogamer Expo I’m heavily excited for Titanfall to land in stores next year.

Titanfall’s strength is that it delivers fast paced adrenaline filled fun without the annoyance of being gunned down in seconds. This is mainly thanks to the level of mobility you have, as you can double jump and run across walls. Some may believe that you spend most of your time inside a Titan, this isn’t entirely true. You first have to wait for your Titan to fall (hence the name), which takes a minute or two. This adds another element of fun to the game as you can see how long you’ll survive on foot before operating your mech. But fear not, the timer wont reset if you die. You’re told how long you have to wait over radio, which makes things even better as you don’t have to divert your attention to an actual on-screen clock.

In our demo we chose from one of three different pilot classes. One of them a basic assault class, one of them was a long-range tactical class and the final one a shotgun/explosion based class aimed at delivering heavy damage. You then pick a class for your Titan which determines the artillery that will be available to you once it arrives. The choices are pretty much the same as the pilot classes.

Your moves have to be well calculated when in a Titan because you’re more vulnerable as it’s so easy to be seen. My experiences inside a Titan became more of a short lived power boost at times because enemies would gun for me as soon as I got inside. Thankfully you receive a warning when your Titan is about to explode and you can then attempt to eject to safety.

Whats great about Titanfall is that battles will likely never feel one sided. In Call of Duty killstreaks earn you powerful rewards. But in Titanfall everyone’s Titan is on a timer, so you’ll have access to one every couple of minutes no matter if you’re winning or losing. This balances the game and never makes you feel as though you’re losing by a landslide. There was never a time where I felt I couldn’t get a kill because I wasn’t good enough, or the other team were too powerful for me.

Thankfully my team won the match. But the game doesn’t stop once your team is victorious. After the match is done the losing team gets a chance to flee from the battlefield by making their way to an extraction point. As the winning team you’re able to chase them down and stop them from fleeing. It’s something that didn’t need to be added, but it provides an extended layer of fun to the experience.

Although Titanfall isn’t a next-gen launch title, It’s definitely a game worthy of swaying someone from one console to the other. It’s currently only confirmed for Xbox One and PC with a 360 version possibly materializing later on. It may never land on another platform and even if it does I wouldn’t recommend waiting that long to experience this game.

Some may be put off by the fact that the game is multiplayer only, but Respawn Entertainment has talked about multiplayer campaign modes which feature real-time events and cutscenes and these seem like they will carry off the illusion of providing a story mode. I am every bit confident that Respawn Entertainment will provide enough content in this game to make it worthy of the full price.

About The Author

Gary A. Swaby
Co-founder/UK Managing Editor
Gary Swaby is a co-founder of The Koalition. He enjoys video games, reading and comic book movies. Being part of The Koalition is his proudest accomplishment. "There's nothing like having a platform to express your love for the art of video games," says Gary.View Profile